In the manufacture of many articles of commerce, for example lithographic printing plates, one is required to provide various surface treatments to metallic webs. Some such treatments require an electrical contact between the metallic web and a process material such as an electrolyte. One particularly useful web processing process is anodizing. In anodizing a metallic material, such as aluminum, a long web of the metal is continuously passed through an electrolytic solution, typically sulfuric acid, during which time an electric current is passed from an electrode immersed in the solution to the aluminum web. In the past a problem has been encountered when one supply spool of untreated metallic web has been exhausted and another must be begun. Merely allowing the end of the spent spool to pass through the processing system and threading the new spool through is impracticable due to a lack of web tension throughout the entire process system and an enormous waste of material. In the past several methods of splicing the end of the first web to the beginning of the new web have been most troublesome. In one method, the ends are merely sealed together by means of an adhesive. This has been proven to be unsatisfactory since electrical contact is not maintained between the spliced webs and there is a tendency for an arc to develop or burning to occur in the gap between the ends when the spliced portion enters the electrolytic solutions. By another method, the ends of the web are actually welded together at a joint. However, this requires the stopping of the manufacturing process to effect the weld with a concomitant loss in manufacturing time and material waste due to excess dwell time in downstream treatment steps.